dispatches
October 28, 2022

Sitrep for October 27-28 (till 15:00)

The situation on the frontline

Pro-Russian military correspondent Poddubnyy wrote in his Telegram channel that Ukrainian forces resumed a counteroffensive in the Svatove direction. There is a probability of a Ukrainian army breakthrough into Chervonopopivka from the northwest.

Semyon Pegov (pro-Russian journalist) and his colleagues from the WarGonzo project fear that Ukrainian troops will break through to Kreminna and Zhytlivka.

After Ukrainian forces claimed the liberation of a factory on the eastern outskirts of Bakhmut, Russian forces showed video footage to refute this fact.

Ukrainian video
Russian video

In reality, there are two factories on the outskirts of Bakhmut. Ukrainian forces liberated the Siniat plant, while the asphalt plant (it is slightly south of Siniat) is under Russian control.

Near Soledar, the 93rd Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is shelling Russian positions in resettled residential buildings. Based on the geolocation of this video, it is clear that in two months, Russian forces have advanced only 800 meters in this direction.

Strikes

On October 27, Ukrainian strikes on Shakhtars'k, Donetsk region, continued. A railway station where railroad tank cars caught fire, and an oil depot were hit.

Also on October 27, Russian forces attacked critical infrastructure in the Kyiv region, causing a serious fire. Due to significant damage to the energy infrastructure, the head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration Oleksiy Kuleba called on residents of the region to prepare for emergency power outages for an indefinite period. Due to the fact that the capacity deficit of the energy system in Kyiv amounted to 30% of consumption, city residents were warned about the upcoming longer power outages and urged to use electricity even more economically.

Russian forces also used Geran-1 (Shahed-131) kamikaze drones when attacking objects in the Kyiv region.

On the night of October 27, Russian forces attacked the outskirts of Zaporizhzhia. According to the head of the Regional Military Administration Oleksandr Starukh, Smerch MLRS rockets were used; The resulting fire was extinguished and no one was injured.

Also on the night of Octoberer 27, the Balaclava Power Plant (Crimea) was attacked with a UAV. As a result, one of the transformers, turned off due to preventive maintenance, caught fire.

We recall that attacks on energy infrastructure are a violation of international humanitarian law.

Mobilization update

Wives and mothers of mobilized men from Polevskoy, Sverdlovsk Region, send letters of complaint to military recruitment offices because their loved ones were sent to the frontline without weapons and after one day of training. The mobilized soldiers, who were sent to Chervonopopivka (near Svatove), called home and said that more than half of the personnel was already killed, and they had no equipment.

First obituaries of the killed mobilized soldiers appeared. In Polevskoy, a 29-year-old loader who worked at a meat cutting plant was buried. The man was very afraid to go to the front but accepted a draft notice, so as not to look like a coward in the eyes of his family members. Mobilized on September 27, he was already killed on October 12.

Family members of mobilized soldiers often underestimate the dangers involved in taking part in hostilities and view deployment to the front line as just a military exercise. In the long run, these soldiers have extremely low chances of surviving.

It has been reported that some mobilized from the Belgorod region have been killed near Svatove. Among them is a resident of the village of Konshino mobilized on September 22. His last message was from Luhansk on October 8 about being sent to the frontline. He was killed on October 8.

There is evidence that Russian forces are using night vision systems. There are two videos, one reportedly showing a Ukrainian mortar crew getting hit in the Lyman direction, the other an attack on an ammunition depot in the Zaporizhzhia direction.

The monitoring group “Belarusian Gayun” reports that, according to rail transportation data, over 37,000 tons of ammunition were brought into Belarus in six months. We believe that these are not ammunition for the ground forces, but missiles and loitering munitions.

At a meeting of the UN General Assembly committee, the representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Konstantin Vorontsov stated that Russia could shoot down satellites of Maxar, Planet Labs, and Starlink.

Volodymyr Zelensky requested the SAMP-T anti-aircraft missile system (the European analogue of the Patriot system) from Italy.

Lithuania handed over 7 armored Toyota Land Cruiser 200 SUVs to Ukraine.

Photos of the Panzerhaubitze 2000 in the Bakhmut direction were published.

A photo of the Yugoslav 20mm Zastava M55 anti-aircraft autocannon in Ukrainian Armed Forces service was published.

A video of a Ukrainian D-20 howitzer with a torn barrel has been published. This usually happens when a foreign object or dirt gets into the barrel.

A video from Oleksandrivka in the Donetsk region, controlled by the RuAF, emerged. Chechen troops (National Guards subdivision consisting of Chechens loyal directly to the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, so-called “kadyrovtsy”) broke into a house of a local resident (a woman supporting the separatists) and in response to her outrage they stated that there was no use in filing complaints about them, hinting that they didn’t recognize the authority of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Controversy between Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and the Commander of the Group of Troops “Center” Aleksandr Lapin is ongoing. Kadyrov praised Evgeniy Prigozhin (Russian oligarch, confidant of Vladimir Putin, owner of the Wagner PMC) once again and attempted to contact Lapin. In response Lapin demonstrated footage of the inspection of defense lines with the mobilized.

According to Kadyrov, his three underage sons took part in the hostilities in Ukraine. We recall that involving children in military actions constitutes a war crime.

JSC Concern VKO «Almaz-Antey» (a Russian state-owned company in the arms industry) plans to initiate mass production of a multi-purpose UAV.

The Governor of the Ivanovo region reprimanded the local military commissar for the previously conducted raids.

The Moscow State University will establish a war reporting class, probably, instead of the political journalism module.